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charm - What does it mean?

Definition of 'charm'

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) charme'' (chant, magic spell), from (etyl) ''carmen (song, incantation)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • An object, act or words believed to have magic power.
    • a charm against evil
    It works like a charm .
  • The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration; often constructed in the plural.
    • He had great personal charm .
    She tried to win him over with her charms .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
  • * Milton
    • the charm of beauty's powerful glance
  • (physics) A quantum number of hadrons]] determined by the quantity of [[charm quark|charm quarks & antiquarks.
  • A small trinket on a bracelet or chain, etc., traditionally supposed to confer luck upon the wearer.
    • She wears a charm bracelet on her wrist.
    Synonyms
    * (something with magic power ): amulet, incantation, spell, talisman * (quality of arousing delight or admiration ): appeal, attraction, charisma * (trinket ): amulet, dangle, ornament
    Antonyms
    * (quality of arousing delight or admiration ): boredom, dryness
    See also
    * quark

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.
  • * (John Milton)
    • They, on their mirth and dance / Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
  • *
    • |title=(The Celebrity)|chapter=4 |passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
  • To use a magical charm upon; to subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • No witchcraft charm thee!
  • To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • I, in my own woe charmed , / Could not find death.
  • (obsolete|rare) To make music upon.
  • * (Edmund Spenser)
    • Here we our slender pipes may safely charm .
  • To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.
  • * (Alexander Pope)
    • Music the fiercest grief can charm .
    Synonyms
    * (seduce, entrance or fascinate ): delight, enchant, entrance, win one over * (use magic ): bewitch, enchant, ensorcel, enspell

    Derived terms

    (top2) * (l) * (l) * (l) (mid2) * (l) * (l) * (l) (bottom)

    Etymology 2

    Variant of (chirm), from (etyl) chirme, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The mixed sound of many voices, especially of birds or children.
  • * 1667 , John Milton, Paradise Lost , Book IV:
    • Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, / With charm of earliest Birds
  • * Spenser
    • free liberty to chant our charms at will
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber and Faber 2005, p. 152:
    • The laughter rose like the charm of starlings.
  • A flock, group (especially of finches).

    • Anagrams

    * English collective nouns ----

    Similar to 'charm'

    cream, cerium, curium, cram, corium, crim, carrom, carom, corm, crum, chirm